Vickers Wellington LN514 was a Vickers Wellington bomber built in 1943 in record time, as part of a British propaganda effort during the Second World War. The bomber was constructed in 23 hours and 50 minutes, and took off 24 hours and 48 minutes after the first parts of the airframe had been laid down, beating the previous record of 48 hours set by an American factory. It was constructed at the Vickers-Armstrongs factory in Broughton, Flintshire. The record attempt was the idea of the government to bolster morale at home and send a message abroad that British wartime manufacturing capacity was unaffected by German bombing. The Ministry of Information produced the newsreel Worker's Week-End using film of the attempt, detailing the construction process from the beginning to first flight, emphasising the vital role of women in the workforce on the "factory front". It was distributed both at home and in America, deliberately using a Royal Canadian Air Force officer as narrator. As part of the BBC television's Battle of Britain 70th anniversary season, the record attempt was the subject of a one-hour documentary film Wellington Bomber. Bringing together some of the workers who were originally involved, it examined the effort through their eyes, and together with historian Max Hastings and Rupert "Tiny" Cooling, a former Wellington pilot, examined the bomber and the wider historical context. It was first broadcast on BBC Four on 14 September 2010.
Background
Wellington bomber
The 26.25 metres (86.1 ft) wingspan Vickers Wellington bomber was designed by Rex Pierson and made by the Vickers-Armstrongs company. It was named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. A total of 11,461 were built during the war, more than any other British aircraft except the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane, which were smaller, single-engine aircraft. With its geodetic aluminium skeleton airframe construction covered by a varnished linen fabric skin it was said to be held in great regard by aircrews and pilots for its durability and resistance to damage, able to survive long enough to return home, even if one engine failed. The aircraft's fabric construction and a frame which simply slotted together, likened to the children's toy Meccano, meant that it was easy to assemble, making it a perfect choice for the construction record attempt. The Wellington was a mainstay of the British air fleet during World War II, used throughout the conflict, first for RAF Bomber Command as a strike bomber during the 1940 Battle of Britain and beyond, and after being superseded by the larger Halifax and Lancaster, for RAF Coastal Command in the anti-shipping role from 1943. Two Wellington bombers have survived to the present; the one recovered from Loch Ness is on display at Brooklands Museum Weybridge, Surrey.
Propaganda
With the Broughton factory being run by the Ministry of Aircraft Production, 6,000 people, over half of them women used in place of the men sent to fight, worked 12-hour shifts to make 28 Wellington bombers a week at peak production. Propaganda films were a significant part of the British war effort, often examining the 'factory front' which was crucial to the real front, paying tribute to the dedication and skill of the workers, encouraging new workers to volunteer, and keeping up morale of those already working and of the wider population. The propaganda newsreel Worker's Week-End showing the construction of the Wellington bomber was made in 1943, at the height of the British bombing efforts against Germany. With speed and morale in aircraft production now an important part of sustaining that effort, the Ministry of War together with the RAF came up with the idea of a construction record attempt, and filming it for a Ministry of Information propaganda newsreel. It was to be both a tribute to the workers of the British aircraft industry, and a way for the Ministry of War to demonstrate to the world the spirit and efficiency still evident in wartime aircraft production, despite heavy German bombardment. In particular, the movie was to be shown in America, with an American-sounding narrator deliberately chosen, to show that Britain had not been beaten by The Blitz, the sustained German bombing of 1940-1941, and was now holding its own in production efforts. In a show of competitiveness, breaking the record held by the Americans was also seen as 'one in the eye for' the Americans' comparatively late entry into the fight. Other propaganda films of the period focussing on factory production include the one-off newsreels Night Shift (1942), Clyde-built (1943), Coalminer (1943), and A Date with a Tank (1944), and the series Worker and Warfront (1942–1946) and War Work News (1942–1945). These are now preserved in the Imperial War Museum.
Record attempt The aim of the record attempt was to build an operational Wellington bomber from scratch against the clock, "from first bolt to take-off" The record was at the time held by the Americans, having achieved the feat in 48 hours in a bomber factory in California. The newsreel records that the bomber's wheels lifted from the ground 24 hours and 48 minutes after construction began. The 2010 documentary also states the build time after the first part of the airframe had been laid was "ten minutes less than 24 hours", and the take-off took place 24 hours and 48 minutes later. Some sources state the assembly time was 23 hours and 48 minutes. The target time set by the workers was to assemble it in 30 hours or less, with a test pilot scheduled for an afternoon flight. However, assembly moved so fast that the pilot had to be roused from his bed to make the flight. The bomber was constructed over a weekend, starting on a Saturday morning. The workers donated their free time for the attempt, donating their bonus money to the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund. The date of the construction is not known; it was probably early summer 1943 (based on National Archives records) or early autumn (the 2010 documentary asserts it was one autumn weekend). October 1943 was the newsreel's release date according to the National Archives, or the production date according to Imperial War Museum records. The newsreel's narrator states that the record attempt took place "not so long ago". The bomber airframe used for the record attempt was serial number LN514. According to the Imperial War Museum record, the newsreel "stresses throughout that standards were not lowered for faster speed".
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